Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies
Volume: 7 – Issue: 2 April - 2017
© Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies 71
Impact of Television Media in Influencing Consumer Buying Behaviour Through
Humourous Adverstisements
N.Senthilkumar, Anna University, India
S.Venkatesh, Anna University, India
Abstract
The evolution of information technology has resulted in the rapid development of Media in
the recent times. As a result, the impact created by media on the day to day lives of
individuals has also increased to a great extent. The purpose of this paper is to identify how
television as an advertising media has impacted the buying behavior of consumers belonging
to different demographic profiles namely age, gender, source of income and educational level
respectively over a period of time through systematic review of existing literature
review.This paper has also proposed a framework and set of propositions portraying the
relationship between demographic variables of consumers and the impact that humor in
television advertisement creates on their buying behaviors respectively.
Keywords: Humor in Advertising, Television, Consumer Memory and Ad Recall, Consumer
Response to Ads
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Volume: 7 – Issue: 2 April - 2017
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Rationale of the Study
According to Kotler and Armstrong (2010), the term ‘advertising’ is coined from the Latin
term “advertere”, which means turning the attention towards something. Advertisement has a
psychological effect on customers, and influences the customers’ purchase intentions. One of
the major aims of marketers is to attract the consumer’s attention for establishing strong
cognition paths for brand advertisements (Pieters et al. 2002). It has been pointed out by
Beard (2008) that, five historical periods have been there in the development of applying
humor in the advertisements. First historical period were from 1900 to 1917 when the
marketers felt that humor might influence the viewers but will not support in selling the
goods or product. Prior to this period, advertisers were dependent on either simple repetition
of name or logo of the product or announcement advertising. Moreover, this period was when
the marketers began to move towards the approach of modern advertising. The 2nd
period was
from 1917 to 1940, when majority of the marketers started to understand that the humor
enjoyment was a global human trait. In such period, humor emerged as the most famous
element in comic strip and cartoon advertising. The 3rd
period was from 1950s and 1960s,
which started a creative revolution (Solis et al 2014).
During this period, more amusement and entertainment were included in advertisements. In
addition to this, marketers shifted more of their advertising away from radio and print, to
television as well as they started to feel that advertisement must be entertaining and
interesting to sell the product. Subsequent period was from 1970 to 1980, when
advertisement went prior to the tough selling style of 1950s, which were influenced by
economic recession. Next to that, in the 1990s, advertisers stated that, they must accept the
use of humor to modify the societal factors like times, mood as well as economy in general.
In addition to that, usage of humor became more famous among marketers and further, humor
had changed as the most famous television advertisement strategies (Carlson2011)
Flaherty et al (2004) have stated that, advertisements play a prominent role in lives of people.
Viewers obtain more information through television advertisements. Majority of the
advertisers develop more techniques and approaches in the television advertising for
delivering the message they like to represent. Humor is one of the famous and commonly
used techniques especially in the television advertising. Television advertising adapts humor
largely when compared with other strategies, since humor has been identified as the most
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influential strategy at a global level in persuading consumers to buy a product. The following
figure illustrates the same:
Figure 1
Consumers Preferred Types of Advertising
Nielson Global survey, 2013 as cited in Hoang, 2013
FIGURE 1 illustrates the consumers preferred types of advertising as identified by Nielson
global survey, 2013. From FIGURE 1, it is evident that a majority of consumers prefer
advertisements to be humorous in order to influence them to buy a product.
The aim of the research is identify how humor in television advertising impact consumers
belonging to different demographic profiles namely age, gender, educational qualification
and source of income through systematic review of existing literature.
Literature Review
Impact of Humorin Television Advertising on Consumers of Different Demographic
Profiles
Age
Weinberger and Spotts (1989) have identified that, considering customers of all age groups,
humor advertising is been identified to be superior among the young customers. Aldenet al
(1993) found out that other than gender there are many other factors such as age and culture
that have effect on humor effectiveness. Thus it was stated that, age factor have impact on
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humor advertisement. Olsson and Larsson (2005) examined the humor in advertisement. This
study was conducted among young consumers. Young consumers opine that humor attracts
attention and make people to stay or watch that advertisement in the television. It was stated
by the young consumers that humor advertisements would make to remember for long term
than non-humorous advertisements. It was also observed that humor would develop a positive
feeling regarding the product. Thus, it can be concluded that humor advertisements influence
young consumers and develop a positive feeling about the product. Shimp (2010) has
discussed about the importance of humor in advertising. It is stated to be an effective and
efficient method to attract the attention and focus to advertisements; it could elevate
customer’s recall of message points; it improves liking of both the advertised brand as well as
the advertisement; it does not affect comprehension and it could maximize memory for
claims of advertisement if the humor relative to brand of the advertisement and so on. Eisend
(2011a) referred that humor minimizes negative cognitions regarding the advertisement since
it would be a distraction from counter-argumentation.
Similarly Gurkaynak et al (2011) carried out an investigation to examine the effect of humor
in advertising. It was found that humor is an effective way for creating awareness, forming
emotional bonds and standing out from the crowd with the brand. Apart from these, it was
also identified that it has the ability to develop buzz marketing particularly among younger
consumers. Thus, it can be concluded that humor was identified as an effective marketing
tool for communication, in order to attract attention among the consumers.
Next to that, Strick et al (2012) carried out an investigation based on three experiments to
identify how humor breaks resistance to domination of advertisements. All three experiments
were carried out among university students. The age of students was between 18 and 22.
From the outcome of experiment 1, it was indicated that resistance would result in the form
of negative explicit. From the result of experiment 2, it was observed that resistance would
result in implicit associations of the brand. Humor prevented such negative associations of
brand formation more than non-distracting neutral and positive stimuli. In addition, from the
results of third experiment it was noticed that humor stimulates implicit and explicit brand
associations and consumer behavior.
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Further, Bajpai et al (2012) examined the humorous advertisements and their impact on
purchase behavior with specific reference to university students. The age level was from 18
to 35 years. It was observed that three factors in advertisement, which affect the consumers,
are caption, appeal and personality. It was also found out that persuasion is positively and
highly associated with caption or keyword used in advertisements. Thus, it can be concluded
that appeal of humorous advertisement and its effectiveness were significantly and positively
correlated. It was noticed that viewers or consumers form attitudes towards products based on
their knowledge, perception and beliefs about such products.
According to the study by Chang and Bandyopadhyay (2013), the impacts of American
humor advertising on Taiwanese customers have been analyzed. The average age was 20.9
years. Three unique perceptual dimensions were determined in the humorous advertisement
processing by Taiwanese customers such as positivity appeal, quality appeal and humor
appeal. It was also found out that all three dimensions related to humorous advertisements
processing were positively influenced, perceived image of brand and motivation to purchase.
From the findings of the study, it was clear that, young consumers had impact on humorous
advertisement.
Similarly, Hoang(2013) examined the decision process of customer and its determinants, and
discusses about the usage and concept of humor in advertising for identifying its effect on
purchase decision of the customer. Data were collected among adolescents. From the findings
of the research, it was noted that humorous advertising has more effect on customer’s recall
when compared to that achieved by aligning product and campaign placement. It was also
noted that humor has great effect on encouraging repurchases whereas suitable for building
an image for brand and gain customer’s fondness. Thus, it can be concluded that, humorous
advertising could attract consumers and gain customer’s fondness.
According to research by Sankaran (2013), it is discussed that, the food product commercials
with respect to television relative to humor appeal. Data were collected from people of age
group 20 to 40. Sarcasm and exaggeration are found to be the mostly used humor appeal in
the commercials ‘relative to food product. It is observed that, 72 per cent of the viewers do
not enjoy sarcasm; 84 per cent of the viewers are found to opine that there is a moderate
usage of exaggeration in television commercials relative to food product. It was also found
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies
Volume: 7 – Issue: 2 April - 2017
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out that celebrity endorsement, humor content, music, dialogues, visuals and characterization
assist them for recalling the commercial and that humor, as an element, assists the viewers for
recalling the name of the product. It was thus clear that, people of age group 20 to 40 prefer
usage of exaggeration in the humor appeal than sarcasm.
Motwani and Agarwal (2013) focused on the effect of humorous advertisements on customer
behavior. It was found that every age group has the similar views about the humor
advertisement. Poku and Owusu (2014) examined the relationship between viewer persuasion
and humorous television advertisement. It was observed that, there exists significant
difference among demographic characteristics such as ethnic or age among humorous
advertisements. It was also found out that product nature affects the appropriateness in the
treatment of humor. Moreover, it was noticed that the humor is more appropriate for products
of low involvement than products of high involvement and at the same time, it was observed
that humor is more appropriate for product than services. Thus, it can be concluded that there
exist main variance among demographic characteristics like age or ethnic among humor
advertising. TABLE 1 illustrates the impact of humor in television advertising on
consumers’ of different age groups.
Impact of Humour in Television Advertising on Consumers of Different Age Groups
Author’s
Name
Year Findings
Weinberger and
Spotts
1989 It was observed that humour was superior among young
customers.
Alden 1993 It was found out that age factor have impact of humour
advertisement.
Olsson and
Larsson
2005 It was noticed that humour advertisements influence young
consumers and develop a positive feeling about the product.
It was also observed that humour would develop a positive
feeling regarding the product.
Gurkaynak et al 2011 It was pointed out that humour is an effective way for
creating awareness, forming emotional bonds, standing out
from the crowd with the brand and has ability to develop
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Volume: 7 – Issue: 2 April - 2017
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buzz marketing particularly among younger consumers.
Strick et al 2012 Young consumers opined that humour stimulates implicit and
explicit brand associations and also consumer behavior.
Bajpai, Kumar
and Gautam
2012 Age group from 18 to 25 consumers form attitudes towards
products based on their knowledge, perception and beliefs
about such products.
Chang and
Bandyopadhyay
2013 Positivity, quality and humour appeal dimensions in
humorous advertisements processing were positively
influenced perceived image of brand and motivation to
purchase among young consumers.
Hoang 2013 From the adolescents point of view, humour has great effect
on encouraging repurchases whereas suitable for building an
image for brand and gain customer’s fondness. It was
observed that humour has great effect on encouraging
repurchases whereas suitable for building an image for brand
and gain customer’s fondness.
Sankaran 2013 It was noticed that age group from 20 to 40 prefer usage of
exaggeration in the humour appeal than sarcasm.
Motwani and
Agarwal
2013 It was observed that every age group has the similar views
about the humour advertisement.
Poku and
Owusu
2014 There exists main variance among demographic
characteristics like age or ethnic among humour advertising.
Gender
Whipple and Courtney (1981) determined that men tend to enjoy sexual and aggressive
humor than women do. On the other hand, women would have greater enjoyment and
appreciation in terms of non-sensicalhumor. Likewise, Lammers (1991) examined the effect
of gender and self-monitoring on responses to humorous advertising. Gender and self-
monitoring interactions indicated that high self-monitoring men compared with lower
counterparts would be more positive towards humorous advertisements. Conversely, when
high self-monitoring women compared with lower counterparts it was found to be negative.
On the other hand, Attardo and Lucy (2011)focused on examining the impact of humorous
advertising. It was identified that the impact of humor does not differ upon gender. It was
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also identified from the studies of MacLeod (1991); Jacoby (1991, 1998); Krishnan, and
Chakravarti (2003) that there exist no gender differences.
Turckes et al (2010) focused on gender differences with certain humor typologies. It was
revealed that the humor types were funnier to particular genders. It was found out from non-
parametric analysis that genders view humor in commercials uniquely. In addition to this, it
was noted that there are various typologies identified funnier relying on the gender. It was
found out by Eisend (2010); Knoll and Eisend (2011b) that stereotyping in advertising would
be based on the occupational status of the gender. Further, Chan (2011) analyzed the impact
of humor in television advertising. It was found out that humors improve persuasiveness in
the message when the moderating variable NFC (need for cognition) is controlled. It was
observed that repeated exposure to the same humor advertisement does not harm its
persuasive impact. Moreover, it was noticed that male audiences were more persuasive in
terms of humor advertisement whereas female audiences were opposite to male audiences.
Thus, it was clear from the findings that, male audience perceptions were totally opposite to
female audiences.
Swani et al (2013) examined the impact of violent humor on advertising success based on
gender perspective. This research analyzed two studies of the responses in women and men to
violence in humorous advertising. Outcomes of both studies state significant variance in the
responses of women and men recommending that there would be a risk in joining humor with
higher physical violence in advertisements focused towards females. The second study
analyzed in the path model about the role of perceived humor and social norms perceived
violations on the attitudes of women and men towards the brand and advertisement. It was
found out that the poor women response to more violence with humor advertisement is
closely correlated with their social norms perceived violations. On the other hand, more
positive response of men to such advertisements is correlated with the humor perception in
the advertisements with stronger and humor violence (Hermandez et al 2014). Thus, it was
concluded that the responses of men and women differ in the physical violence humor
advertisement.
Baber and Parrey (2013) conducted a research to examine the effect of humor in
advertisement. From the research outcome, it was revealed that there was no significant
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differences exist between female and male opinions in terms of humor with specific reference
to television advertising. In addition, it was noted that humor develops a positive feeling
regarding product due to funny as well as good aspects portrayed about the product in the
advertisement. Thus, it can be concluded that no differences found between the views of the
female and male regarding humor in television advertisement.
Dore (2011) carried out an investigation to analyze the effect of humorous advertisements on
the behavior of the customer. Exploratory research pointed out that there exist a thin variance
between the view of females and males, whereas from the outcomes of chi-square it was
found that, there is no difference in opinions of females and males towards the
advertisements. Thus, it can be concluded that there exist slight difference between the
perspectives of female and male audiences.
Eisend (2014) carried out a research to examine the outcomes of experimental and content-
analytic studies about effectiveness and occurrence of gender stereotyping non-humorous and
humorous advertising. It was found out that men and women are stereotyped in advertisement
relied on humor in specific, conventional males were more prevalent towards the humor
advertisement. On the other hand, it was noticed that females were more prevalent towards
the non-humor advertisement. It was observed that the impact of such stereotypes, humor
enhances the attitudes of the consumer especially if non-traditional stereotyping is used rather
than traditional one. It was thus found out that stereotyped humor advertisement influences
women rather than men. Sutton-Spence and Donna (2011) carried out an investigation to
analyze the relationship between persuasion of viewer and humor in television advertising. It
was found that there exists major variance among demographic characteristics namely gender
among humor advertisement.
Arockiaraj and Morais (2014) conducted a research to examine the customer’s perspective
based on the ethical dimensions of commercial TV (television) advertisement. It was found
that sense of humor was one of the influencing factors in watching television advertisements.
It was noticed that there exist significant difference among male and female perspectives
about the humor appeal in the advertisement. TABLE 2 illustrates the impact of humor in
television advertising on consumers’ of different genders.
Table 2
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Impact of Humour in Television Advertising on Consumers of Different Gender
Author’s
Name
Year Findings
Whipple
and
Courtney
1981 It was observed that men tend to enjoy sexual and aggressive
humour than women do, whereas on the other hand women
would have greater enjoyment and appreciation in terms of
non-sensicalhumour.
Macleod 1991 From the findings it is observed that there exist no gender
differences.
Lammers 1991 It was found out gender and self-monitoring interactions
indicated that high self-monitoring men compared with lower
counterparts would be more positive towards the humorous
advertisements. It was also found out that, on the other hand
when high self-monitoring women compared with lower
counterparts it was found to be negative.
Jacoby 1991, 1998 It was observed that there exist no gender differences.
Alden 1993 It was observed that impact of humour does not differ upon
gender.
Krishnan
and
Chakravarti
2003 Male and female have similar views regarding the humorous
advertisement.
Turckes et
al
2010 It was noticed that the humour types are funnier to particular
genders.
Eisend
Knoll and
Eisend
2010
2011
It was found out that stereotyping in advertising would be
based on the occupational status of the gender
Chan 2011 It was found out that male audience perceptions were totally
opposite to female audiences.
Swani et al 2013 It was observed that responses of men and women differ in
the physical violence humour advertisement.
Baber and
Parrey
2013 There are no differences found between the views of the
female and male regarding humour in television
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advertisement.
Motwani
and
Agarwal
2013 There exists slight difference between the perspectives of
female and male audiences.
Eisend 2014 It was found out that there exists major variance among
demographic characteristics namely gender among humour
advertisement.
Arockiaraj
and Morais
2014 There exist significant differences among male and female
perspective about the humour appeal in the advertisement.
Source of Income
Hang (1998) carried out an investigation for examining the relationship between personal
values and personal attitudes towards general and humor appeals in advertisement. The two
countries culture namely Vietnam and Malaysia were also examined. It was observed that
when considering Malaysia, lower income group people agreed with humor appeals in
advertisement than higher income group and on the other hand, Vietnamese were totally
opposite to this. Jin and Villegas (2007) focused on the placement effect of the product in
film. The emotional responses of customers about the prior brand evaluation and humorous
stimuli were also examined. It was found out that there exist significant differences between
income level and impact of humorous stimuli.
Mir and Khan (2012) examined the role of humor-oriented advertising at the time of crisis
economy. It was stated that humor oriented advertisement plays a vital role in influencing the
viewers to an advertisement. Moreover, humorous advertisements were based on novel
associations positively and effectively influence the attitudes of the customers to television
advertising. At the time of crisis economies, it was found out that humorous advertising
would positively attract the purchase intentions of the customers. It was also observed that
during crisis time, humorous advertisements with high income significantly and positively
dominate the attitude of customer to humor oriented television advertisement.
Babut (2012) carried out a research to examine the Romanian customer’s attitudes towards
television commercials. It was observed that customers would have favorable attitude
towards humor commercials and would get positive feelings such as pride, pleasure and joy.
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It was found out that lower income group people have favorable attitude towards humor
appeal in the advertisements. It was observed that humor is seen as an emotional trigger that
was liked by majority of the customers.
Bajpai, Kumar and Gautam (2012) carried out an investigation to analyze the impact of
humorous advertisement on purchase behaviors. It was examined that, humorous
advertisement could negatively influence any income group whereas repetition and expensive
product of the advertisement did not affect the attitude of purchasing. It was clear that, there
exists a difference among income group of customers in viewing the humorous
advertisement. Lee (2012) examined about, how the customers or viewers respond to various
humorous advertising types. It was observed that there were significant variances found
among the consumers of varying monthly income. It was noticed that humorous
advertisements would support or promote comprehension of brand message. It was also
found that humorous advertisements are superior when compared to non-humorous
advertisements (Recio et al 2010). Various humorous advertisement types have unique
impacts on brand recall and brand recognition.
Prempeh, Boateng and Asuamah (2013) examined the factors, which influence the
effectiveness of alcohol advertisement. Few respondents have opined that usage of humor in
alcohol advertisement influence to purchase or buy alcohol. Demographic variables like
religion and family income levels affect attitude towards alcohol advertisement. In addition to
that, it was noted that factors like peers, parents, community practices and adults do not
influence customer’s purchase behavior of the alcohol.
Mensah, Asuamah and Amankwah (2013) analyzed the customer’s attitude towards elements
in the advertisement. It was revealed that majority of the customers were attracted towards
humor appeal in the advertisement. It was noticed that the status of family income has
significant impact on attitude towards humor appeal in the television advertisements.
According to the research by Majid (2013), which has discussed about the culture influence
in advertising, it is examined that, majority of the advertisers include humorous approach for
influencing the customers to buy their products. From the research results, it was found out
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that there exists a high difference among income group in getting attracted to the humorous
advertisement.
Perspective of the consumers on the ethical dimensions of commercial television
advertisement was examined byApter and Mitzi (2012) . From the findings of the research, it
was revealed that, factors, which influenced the most in watching television advertisements,
are theme, sense of humor and presentation. It was also found that there exists significant
difference among family income in influencing the humorous television advertisement.
TABLE 3 illustrates the impact of humor in television advertising on consumers’ of various
sources of income.
Table 3: Impact of Humour in Television Advertising on Consumers of Various Sources Of
Income
Author’s
Name
Year Findings
Hang 1998 It was observed that when considering Malaysia, lower income
group people agreed with humour appeals in advertisement than
higher income group and on the other hand Vietnamese were totally
opposite to this.
Jin and
Villegas
2007 It was found out that there exist a significant difference exist
between income level and impact of humorous stimuli.
Mir and
Khan
2012 At the time of crisis economies, it was found out that humorous
advertising would positively attract the purchase intentions of the
customers. It was observed that during crisis time, humorous
advertisements with high income significantly and positively
dominate the attitude of customers to humour oriented television
advertisement.
Babut 2012 It was found out that lower income group people have favorable
attitude towards humour appeal in the advertisements. It was
observed that humour is seen as an emotional trigger that was liked
by majority of the customers.
Bajpai, 2012 It was found out that humorous advertisement could negatively
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Kumar and
Gautam
influence any income group whereas repetition and expensive
product of the advertisement did not affect the attitude of
purchasing.
Lee 2012 It was observed that there were significant variances found among
the monthly income. It was noticed that humorous advertisements
would support or promote comprehension of brand message. It was
found that humorous advertisements are superior when compared to
non-humorous advertisements.
Prempeh,
Boateng and
Asuamah
2013 Demographic variables like religion and family income levels affect
attitude towards alcohol advertisement. In addition to that, it was
noted that factors like peers, parents, community practices and
adults do not influence customer’s purchase behaviour of the
alcohol.
Mensah,
Asuamah
and
Amankwah
2013 It was revealed that majority of the customers were attracted
towards humour appeal in the advertisement. It was noticed that the
status of family income has significant impact on attitude towards
humour appeal in the television advertisements
Majid 2013 It was found out that there exists a high difference among income
group in attracting the humorous advertisement.
Arockiaraj
and Morais
2014 It was revealed that factors which influenced most in watching
television advertisements are theme, sense of humour and
presentation. It was found out that there exists significant difference
among family income in influencing the humorous television
advertisement.
Educational Level
Brooker (1981) pointed out that factors like level of education would influence perceived
humor. It was verified that highly educated people or customer are more sensitive towards
humorous advertisement. Madden and Weinberger (1984) identified that humorous
advertisements were appropriate to educated young males. McGhee (1986) and Mak and
Carpenter (2007) pointed out that humor comprehension needs cognitive abilities that would
be highly relied on educational level. It was also found out that, the level of education assist
to identify the variations in understanding the humor. It was clear from the above analysis
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that comprehension of the humor appeal needs cognitive abilities, which would be highly
dependent on the level of education.
Hang (1998) conducted a research to analyze the relationship between personal attitudes and
values towards humor appeals in advertising across two nations namely Malaysia and
Vietnam. It was observed that bachelor degree holders in Vietnam were more agreeable on
humor appeals in advertisement than post-graduate degree holders. On the other hand, there
exists slight difference among bachelor and post-graduate degree holders in Malaysia
regarding humor appeals in advertisement. Thus, it was concluded that there exist difference
among level of education in influencing the humor appeals in the advertisement.
Eisend (2007) carried out Meta-analysis of humor impacts in advertising. It was noticed that
humor works best for well-educated consumers especially males. It was pointed out that
humor influences variables as mentioned by effective models. It indicates an effect towards
memory and attention. Thus, it can be concluded that the well-educated male consumers were
attracted towards humor advertisement than other counterparts. Perks (2012) identified that
different educational backgrounds of the consumers have different opine about the humorous
advertising. Apart from these, it was also noticed that well-educated consumers are also
attracted by the humorous advertisement.
Siddiqui (2011) explored the influence of customer personality of likeness of themes namely
humorous advertising. Data were gathered from postgraduate and under graduate students of
different universities. It was noted that differences exist among postgraduate and under
graduate students for likeness of humorous advertisements. Extraversion as a personality
factor had a significance difference in the likeness theme of humorous advertisement (Scolari
& Carlos 2012). It was also noticed that extraverts would possess higher tendency for
experiencing positive emotions like happiness, joy, excitement and love. Thus it was
concluded that difference exist between the educational levels of the consumers.
According to the study by Lee (2012) have discussed about how consumers respond to
various types of humorous advertisement. It was found out that bachelor degree holders have
high impact than other groups. It was also observed that various humorous advertisement
types have variance on different dimensions in terms of communication of brand. It was
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verified that effective type of humorous advertisement has greater brand recall than social
and cognitive.
According to the research by Yoong (2012) who have examined about the relationship
between television advertisement, which is humorous, and audience persuasion, it was
observed that audience like goods and services when advertised with humor. It was also
observed that education level and cultural background influence the humor advertisement
among audience.
Poku and Ampadu (2014) examined the impact of advertisement on consumer loyalty in
telecommunications industry with respect to Ghana. It was observed that humorous
advertisement nature that influenced the customers are, expressions, comical lines,
appearance and gestures of the advertisement. It was observed that based on the educational
level of the consumers, the perspectives about the humorous advertisement varies. TABLE 4
illustrates the impact of humor in television advertising on consumers’ of various educational
levels.
Impact of Humour in Television Advertising on Consumers of Various Educational Levels
Author’s
name
Year Findings
Brooker 1981 It was verified that highly educated people or customer are more
sensitive towards humorous advertisement.
Madden
and
Weinberger
1984 From the findings of the research it was observed that humorous
advertisements were appropriate to educated younger males.
McGhee 1986 It was also found out that level of education assist to identify the
variations in understanding the humour.
Hang 1998 It was observed that bachelor degree holders in Vietnam were more
agreeable on humour appeals in advertisement than postgraduate
degree holders. On the other hand there exists slight difference
among bachelor and postgraduate degree holders in Malaysia
regarding humour appeals in advertisement.
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Eisend 2007 It was noticed that humour works best for well-educated consumers
especially males. It was pointed out that humour influences variables
as mentioned by affective models.
Jin and
Villegas
2007 Different educational backgrounds of the consumers have different
opine about the humorous advertising.
Mak and
Carpenter
2007 It was found out that comprehension of the humour appeal needs
cognitive abilities which would be highly dependent on the level of
education.
Siddiqui 2011 It was noted that difference exists among post graduate and under
graduate students for likeness of humorous advertisements. It was
also noticed that extraverts would possess higher tendency for
experiencing positive emotions like happiness, joy, excitement and
love.
Lee 2012 It was also observed that various humorous advertisement types have
variance on different dimensions in terms of communication of
brand. It was verified that affective type of humorous advertisement
has greater brand recall than social and cognitive.
Poku and
Owusu
2014 It was observed that audiences like goods and services when
advertised with humour. It was also observed that education level and
cultural background influence the humour advertisement among
audience.
Poku and
Ampadu
2014 It was observed that based on the educational level of the consumers,
the perspectives about the humorous advertisement varies.
Findings and Research Framework
It is clear from above analysis that television media plays a significant impact on influencing
the buying behaviour of consumers. Television media advertisements when designed with
humor would develop a positive feeling regarding the product. With respect to age, it is found
out that humor advertisements influence young consumers than adolescents. When
considering gender, it is noticed that humor works best for well-educated consumers
especially male. At the same time, when focusing on education level, it is found that the level
of education assists to identify the variations in understanding the humor. When looking into
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Volume: 7 – Issue: 2 April - 2017
© Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies 88
the perspective of source of income, it is clear that, humorous advertisementinfluence people
belonging to all the income groups.
FIGURE 1portrays on how much television advertisements influence consumers to purchase
a product. Most of the consumers knows about a product only through television and go for
purchase. Television advertisements hold a lion’s share (39.8%) among all the sources.
Figure 1
Percentage of Television Advertisements in Buying Behaviour of Consumers
Michaela Mora (2015)
FIGURE 2 shows the chart of the likeability of humor advertisement in television.
Consumers like humor advertisements and it urge them to go for buying.
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies
Volume: 7 – Issue: 2 April - 2017
© Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies 89
Figure 2
Chart Showing the Humor Advertisement Influences
David Erickson (2015)
FIGURE 3 depicts the conceptual framework exploring the relationship on how humor in
television advertising would affect the buying behavior of consumers depending upon the
demographic profiles to which they belong:
Figure 3
Framework on Impact of Humour in Television Advertising on Consumers’ Buying Behavior
Depending Upon Various Demographic Profiles of Consumers
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies
Volume: 7 – Issue: 2 April - 2017
© Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies 90
Conceptual framework was developed based on the impact of humor advertising in television
advertising. This proposed review has been analyzed based on the demographics variables
such as age, gender, source of income and educational level. From the findings of the study, it
was found that demographics factors such as gender, age, educational level and source of
income have significant effect on humor advertising in television advertising.
Based on the conceptual framework, the following propositions can be arrived at for the
future researchers to test and experiment:
P1: Impact of humor in television advertising on consumers’ buying behavior depending
upon their age
P2: Impact of humor in television advertising on consumers’ buying behavior depending
upon their gender
P3: Impact of humor in television advertising on consumers’ buying behavior depending
upon their source of income
P4: Impact of humor in television advertising on consumers’ buying behavior depending
upon their educational level
Future Work
The other researchers can extend this work in futurein a quantitative manner. The
propositions given in this paper can be hypothetically tested by the future researchers through
collection of primary data from consumers belonging to a specific region and application of
statistical tools on the collected primary data. Future work can be carried out by
quantitatively testing the relationship based the demographic variable of consumers namely
gender, source of income, age and level of education and the extent to which they are
impacted by humorous television advertisement when buying a particular product or availing
a particular service.
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© Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies 91
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